NT tour guide David McMahon cooks and eats cane toad legs

NT man cooks and eats cane toad legs

VideoNorthern Territory tour guide David McMahon cooked up the pests for Tasmanian art exhibition, and thought since he was making it, he'd try it.

David McMahon is used to cane toads. As a tour guide in the Northern Territory, he sees them everywhere.

So when he was approached by a Tasmanian art exhibition to catch some, he jumped at the chance.

But the organisers behind Eat The Problem, didn’t just want the poisonous pests for display, they wanted to know how to cook them.

And as a former chef Mr McMahon was happy to oblige - but not without trying them first.

Camera IconChopping up the cane toads...

Video of the unusual experiment was posted online and has since gone viral.

So, how did they taste?

Mr McMahon said he didn’t want to use a cliche such as ‘tastes like chicken’, but chicken thigh, he explained, was what came to mind.

He also explained he didn’t eat the entire toad - just the legs - and that they were killed humanely.

“I put them in the fridge until they go to sleep, then I whacked them in the freezer,” he said.

“I had to do around two kilos of legs, so I estimated that to be about 100 toads, which was scarily easy to collect.

Camera IconAnyone for cane toad?

“100 toads only took me a couple of hours, and I was only after the bigger ones.”

Mr McMahon said cane toad leg preparation was quite easy - simply cut the legs off with a meat cleaver, then, as he put it, “the skin peels off really easily, it just peels off like a glove.”

He then lightly seasoned the legs, put them in a pan and fried them on each side.

While cane toads are poisonous with the poison glands in their head and skin, Mr McMahon insists they’re safe to eat as long as they are rinsed thoroughly in salty water before cooking.

Cane toads are an invasive, introduced species responsible for the decline in native animals along the north coast of Australia, because the animals eat the toads and die form the poison.

Camera IconKids, DO NOT try this at home!

The toads have made their way into WA, and according to group Kimberley Toad Busters, cane toads will be as far as Broome this year.

Mr McMahon said he’s seen the spread of the species during regular trips into WA.

“They tend to move in the wet season, when there’s access to more water, it’s estimated, it’s about 50 kilometres a year and they’re moving further west, and every year I’m seeing that migration,” he said.

“Places in the Kimberley, it’s really incredible in some parts, the number of native mammals and reptiles and really unique, endemic species, things that are only found there, and those numbers have really been affected.”

Even so, the former chef and tour guide doesn’t think this is the solution to reducing the cane toad population.

“There’s probably a limited number of people, certainly Australians that are going to get into the idea of eating cane toads,” he said. “It’s something that people find disgusting, the idea of cane toads is so disgusting, we’re quite limited in our range of foods. Australians tend not to be too out there with what they try and eat.

“But you go into South East Asia, and this is a staple food, in fact it’s a delicacy.”